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Unpopular opinion but I don't agree with the idea that Brienne is Sansa with a Sword, like yes, she is innocent and romantic like her and I'm glad when people bring this up to counter the "Brienne is a one-dimensional warrior" but they are not the same people. Sansa was a bully in the first book which everyone forgets. I'm pretty sure that even a hot Brienne would never bully her little sister for not being a proper lady or tell her she's ugly or she deserves to die for something her vile fiance did (and blame her for his actions) or want to marry a guy after she sees him slice a boy's cheek. It hurts me when people act like Sansa= Brienne. and I'm pretty sure GRRM never meant they are twins when he said it. But leave it to annoying Sansa stans to act like Brienne (who is the best and one of the few good characters) is exactly like Sansa, which gives them an excuse to ignore valid criticisms of Sansa (because if she's like Brienne then she is a pure precious baby who can do no wrong!!!!) Whether Brienne/JB fans mean it or not, they are indirectly insulting Brienne by acting like she's the same as Sansa. And I really hate how some Brienne fans say "Brienne is not Arya!!!1!1" as if it's a bad thing to be Arya. No, Arya is also not the one-dimensional killing machine/warrior and even she wants more for her life than masculine-coded things. I appreciate that we Brienne fans call people out for simplifying Brienne but I hate when we do the same thing to Arya.

Ehhh... I think we have pretty different takes on both Brienne and Sansa’s characters, anon!

Yeah, Sansa wasn’t particularly nice to Arya, but I don’t think this made her a vicious bully or anything. They were siblings that didn’t get on, and the disparity between them was heightened due to the fact that the female hierarchy at Winterfell favoured Sansa because she was better at performing her prescribed gender role. Lots of people say and do stupid stuff when they are kids, and are horrible to their siblings (god knows me and my brother were!) and I don’t see anything that Sansa does outside the boundaries of a normal combative sibling relationship. I do think if Arya and Sansa were magically able to reunite in ADWD, they would fall into each other’s arms with happiness because they’ve missed each other. Their small scale animosity as children is going to seem pretty inconsequential in comparison to everything that has gone on since. Sansa and Arya have ultimately been written to complement each other - Sansa the shield, Arya the sword - so I don’t think we are meant to see Sansa’s actions towards Arya as horribly irredeemable, just the actions of a naive girl who was trying desperately to fit into the system that valued feminine attributes that Arya represented a challenge to.

In terms of comparing Brienne to Arya and Sansa, I think comparisons can be made to both. Brienne and Sansa share a kind of naivety and a love of songs and stories, whereas Arya and Brienne share that active, aggressive approach. Brienne is the type of girl who became a “tomboy” because the system wouldn’t let her be a “girly-girly”, while Arya is a tomboy because she is a tomboy. They are both a play on that sword maiden archetype, but have very different journeys in getting there.

And as for Brienne, I may be in the minority here, but I really don’t see her as a “pure precious baby who can do no wrong”. She’s judgemental as fuck and initially treats Jaime like shit because of what she thinks she knows (it is totally her who starts the combative dynamic between them). She can hold onto a grudge for an insanely long time (look at the pleasure she got in beating Connington and the bet guys into the mud at the melee and the relish with which she says THAT ONE’S FOR JAIME). She’s untrusting of people (with good reason), but this directly gets her and others into trouble. At the same time, she is brave and kind and idealistic, and it is the fact that she is complicated that makes her interesting.

So, I don’t think anybody is insulting Brienne when they compare her to Sansa. Both are complicated characters who have their flaws, but ultimately have good intentions. I don’t think either of them are morally whiter than white; indeed, GRRM has talked about how he is going to darken Brienne up in future books.

#sun & moon like tarth sigil #brienne of tarth #sansa stark #arya stark #asoiaf

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No shade to that Arya anon, but I feel like they are missing the point of when people call “Sansa with a Sword.” It isn’t that Sansa and Brienne are the same character. It’s the Brienne co-exists as two different archetypes: The Fairy Tale Princess/Maiden (see Glamaphonic’s ‘19 post) and the True Knight. It brings up the question of what happens to the story when the same character inhabits both these roles and what would cause these characters to inhabit the same role beyond saving oneself from

the dragon, which is often what we get when we get empowered Princess narratives. It is because Brienne has the same tendencies of compassion and idealism shared by storybook heroines that enables her to take up the sword to help others and be that true knight. Maybe because it is the recent Rose Red & Snow White AU, but in the original story the two heroines save the bear prince’s life by letting him in to warm by the fire. Brienne’s the Little Mermaid who rather die than kill the Prince who

who wronged her and his wife to save herself. She’s Vasilisa the Beautiful who goes to the fearsome Baba Yaga’s house to collect more candles after her wicked step-family destroys the candles. She’s the youngest sister who takes fulfills her promise to watch a corpse and saves the young man and her sisters in the process. She’s Anait, who saves her husband from bandits by knowing how to recognize his weaving style. She’s Lizzie who braved the Goblin Market to save her sister.

Now imagine those characters with a sword. She is not bogged down by the toxic masculinity trained into boys through the squiring system or expectations of success, power, and domination. It’s because she longs for those feminine roles, but is not allowed to access them so she arguably channels them into being a Knight. I’m not an expert on Arya so I might be talking out of my butt—Arya and Sansa also explore Princess archetypes in different ways. Sansa might have the typical princess saves

who saves herself but rather than rejecting her femininity in favor of masculinity, she will use her wit and knowledge of politics and gender roles to free herself. Arya’s story has less to do with the exact mechanics of being a good leader, but that’s does not mean she does not fit a Royal archetype. Her strong connection with her direwolf, her admiration of Nymeria, the fact that the North is marching in her name as “Ned’s Little Girl,” her ability to befriend anyone regardless of class,

her ability to befriend anyone regardless of class, her arc’s focus on identity/mercy/justice, and her fighting prowess makes me think she is more in line with the Warrior Queen / Sovereignty Goddess archetypes. She inhabits the land and represents it is supposed to be—for all people. It is under her guidance that rulers are made and broken. When we usually see the Warrior Queen and Sovereignty Goddess In narratives, she usually is an adult, either in the height of her power and self-possession

or weary yet dedicated to protecting her people. Instead, we see the girl before she gets to that point in Arya. We see her have to contend with her training, what justice means, her self-doubt within a patriarchy, and her rise to power. Arya’s archetype is less rooted in folk and fairy tales and arguably more in myth if that makes sense. I wrote this off the cuff so I don’t have specific texts or quotes to support my points. Whenever I see ppl butthurt over the Sansa & Brienne comparison, I

roll my eyes because they so often miss the point that’s it is not a 1 to 1 comparison, but about archetypes. Besides the inhabiting the fairytale princess archetype isn’t always a good thing since Brienne’s idealism and strict sense of right & wrong cause her to be judgmental, stubborn, rigid, and undervalue herself to the point where she thinks the only way she can love someone & be near them is to serve them with little thought of her safety and mental health (her crying at Renly’s marriage

yet still serving him as a knight and changing his armor like a squire comes to mind), which gets her into difficult situations.

Thank you for your comments, anon!

I think you are totally right here: Sansa, Arya, and Brienne all play with archetypes from fairy stories/fantasy/folk tales in different ways, but there is intersection between which archetypes they represent. I think you can also add Cersei into this mix. She is a play on the Guinevere archetype - a queen forced into a loveless marriage who is having an affair with someone sworn to her husband - as well as the Evil Queen archetype. GRRM twists the chivalric Guinevere/Lancelot trope so, instead of it being a highly romantic, forbidden love, it is a toxic incestuous relationship which quickly falls apart when brought into the light. And in regards to the Evil Queen archetype, Cersei is the Evil Queen to Sansa’s Snow White (and maybe even Brienne’s Snow White, if she turns out to be the YMB).

I am not particularly hot on Arya’s arc either, but in her role as “Warrior Queen” we also see the way she becomes traumatised by violence and maybe a little desensitised to it (you see that with Brienne too). Arya and Sansa are also designed to be complimentary - the sword and the shield respectively - and therefore are plays on archetypes that are designed to work together.

A brief note on Brienne as both the Fairy Tale Princess and the True Knight. When combined in Brienne, both expressions of this archetype want the same thing: a sword. The True Knight clearly wants to be armed with a sword and also receive an official status as a knight through the knighting ceremony (again with a sword). The Fairy Tale Princess wants her Fairy Tale Prince, and in an allegorical sense, sword = penis. It is therefore no surprise that Jaime and Brienne have the sword fight sex scene, and this exchange happens:

“Give me the sword, Kingslayer.”

“Oh, I will.”

Jaime will of course give Brienne the sword in both senses of the word.

#interesting stuff #brienne of tarth #cersei lannister #sansa stark #arya stark #asoiaf

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Brienne: *wow, my Septa told me that no one will ever like or love me so it must be true*

Catelyn: Awww, look at this little knight baby who needs love and protection, I'm going to defend her.

Pod: Hello, I'm Pod and you are now my Mum.

Jaime (onstage): I don't like you, wench. You are an ugly cow.

Jaime (offstage): DID YOU JUST TALK SHIT ABOUT BRIENNE OF TARTH? I KILL YOU!

BRIENNE, BRIENNE, WHERE ARE YOU HAVE YOU FOUND SANSA YET?

DEAR GOD, I KNOW I'M AN ATHEIST BUT CAN YOU PROTECT BRIENNE OF TARTH PLEASE, SHE'S REALLY GREAT.

BRIIIIIEEEEENNNNNNEEEEEE.

#my sweet brienne💕#jaime x brienne #asoiaf

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Edric Dayne & Sansa Stark

commission for @themockingpoint

#sansa stark #edric dayne #edric dayne & sansa stark #asoiaf art #asoiaf

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Catelyn's resentment at always having to adhere to men is not talked about enough in my opinion. When she bitterly thinks that she always did her duty. When she thinks about having to wait for the men in her life. When she snaps that Robb did not her consider his sisters important enough. When she laments that no one sings songs of the battles of women aka childbirth and children.... Yes she conforms because she is realistic and pragmatic and dutiful and she wants to survive and be happy enough and she wants the same for her daughters.

YES EXACTLY. I think it’s like. For so long she conformed because it was realistic pragmatic dutiful, because being a perfect lady and heir made things easier on her parents, and she loved her parents, she wanted them to he proud, and it turned out she was GOOD at so many of the things they asked of her, and it gave her the ability to be in charge of herself and her life for so long, and when minisa died, she could help lift the burden off her father’s shoulders, and it gave her the ability to grow and speak her mind, and being dutiful brought her ned, who was so much more than she ever thought she’d get, and it brought her five amazing children, and a home she loves and can be free in - like jon snow thing does suck but compare this situation to like upwards of 90% of the marriages & you know what it’s a fucking dream and Catelyn knows this, she is aware things can always be worse, it’s why she understands immediately why jon & lysa were doomed from the start, she understands this system and how it works, and it’s worked so well for her she can ignore the ways it has hurt her.

And then it just. Completely fails her. She’s tricked by Lysa and Petyr, the two people she’d least expect it from that she never even entertains the idea, Ned is murdered, Sansa is a hostage, Arya is just gone, Bran has been nearly murdered twice, and she’s in her childhood home and Hoster is dying and Edmure is annoying and Blackfish is off fighting again and she’s reliving the worst days of her life but this time the person waging war isn’t a husband she doesn’t know, it’s her own son and she just can’t stop thinking about how she’s done everything right, she’s played by the rules her whole life, she upheld the social contract because it promised she’d have control over her life, and then the whole thing just completely fails because joffrey has a tantrum after petyr whispered in his ear, AGAIN, just another mad king with power hungry advisors, and she’s stuck in this room AGAIN-

AND SHE DOES.

like, that’s what happens, is she spends her whole life doing what she’s supposed to and then it crumbles down around her and she just figures, fuck it, if following the rules can’t do the one (1) most important thing it has to do which is keep my family alive than i’m not following shit anymore. she starts to just do what she thinks is best. starts to snap back. starts to just speak without being asked. like, she’s cracking, she’s breaking up, YEAH she’s still dutiful, but what is she being dutiful TOWARDS? is she doing what robb says? what edmure says? NO, she’s making her OWN DECISIONS she’s trying. and then people will see her become a literal undead spirit of rage and revenge and be like “she’s so dutiful and never struggles or chafes against the patriarchy” when she struggled and screamed so much at the ending she was clawing her own face to ribbons!!

#yesssssssssssss #catelyn stark #asoiaf

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Laena and Laenor

#he deserved to see her at least one more time💕#laenor velaryon #laena velaryon #laena and laenor #laenor and laena #web weaving #house velaryon #hotd #asoiaf

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mutuals let me in

#😭

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Brienne and Femininity (and Masculinity)

I’ve been musing how one of the most important topics in Brienne's storyline is femininity, and even though her story isn't finished, we can fairly see what some of her major themes are around this—particularly, how performing or failing at performing femininity affects her both internally and externally.

Often I see people pointing out that, in spite of all of Brienne’s traditionally masculine ways—her clothes, her skill set, her body shape, to name a few—she does not fully reject femininity. That she likes little cute animals and fairy tales and wears dresses, and is shy and blushes frequently. This is an important point because, very often, fantasy settings made the assumption that a woman can only be taken seriously if she goes beyond “her womanhood” and acts and thinks “like a man,” as opposed to other girls who are too busy mending or wanting romance. Brienne challenges those tendencies that GRRM saw in his contemporaries. Things have changed a lot since (hello The Locked Tomb, for example), but you can still see where he is working from, and how many of the aspects of Brienne's story still resonate with more modern audiences because, well, sexism hasn't stopped existing. It's also important because the larger asoiaf and got fandoms often refuse to see this side of her, reducing her to a walking sword or a cardboard cut out of a pushover.

Now, my main issue here is that I feel several interpretations of Brienne have now gone on the other direction, and focus so much on Brienne PERFORMING traditional femininity—wearing luxurious dresses, using make up, accepting lavishing gifts, or wondering if she can be desired, for example—that we've gone sometimes on the opposite direction. I feel like many times we’re afraid or do not know how to approach characterizing her as someone who rejects aspects of femininity without making her into another “not like other girls” stereotype.

My two cents on the matter is that if we focus too much in what Brienne can't but "wants" to perform, we forget that she is, in fact, gladly rejecting some common impositions of femininity in her society.

Beginning with swordplay at a young age, for example, she was very glad to ditch a more traditional education in order to learn how to fight the way we know men are taught in asoiaf/got. She is also explicitly more comfortable in men's clothes. We all like the scene where Jaime makes an effort to give her a dress and she appreciates it, but we don't even find out what happened to the dress, because, presumably, the dress itself is not THAT important, at least not as much as the fact Jaime gave her gifts as a form of appreciation. Dresses have been used in Brienne's past to mock her (the event with the bear being the most recent one), and the important part is that Jaime is the only one who has given her one without that ulterior motive. The point of the scene is that where everyone undermines and underestimates her, he is acting the opposite way. We’re seeing how the relationship between them has evolved and that he is doing his best to mend what has happened and what he has done. She is given a dress and a sword as symbols that someone else in the story is beginning to appreciate her for all she is.

Beyond that, we even get details on the old shield Brienne got at Harrenhal, but not a word about the dress. Brienne explicitly doesn't really like being in dresses, she prefers mail and breeches, and feels more at ease in them than anything else. This is not her hating dresses because she is above them. I can’t remember well but as far as we know it’s just her preference: I don’t recall her saying she hates dresses, just that she prefers trousers. She must have been wearing dresses her whole life! It’s not likely she is unused to them. But we do know the act of being given a dress is important in Brienne’s story. The problem is not that they can’t make dresses for her, the problem is that everyone who forces her to wear a dress wants to signal how lacking she is as a woman, trying to fit her in a box too small for her real shape and then mocking her because she doesn’t meet their standard. The problem is they want to make her uncomfortable and they want to humiliate her, because she dares to exist in a way that doesn’t conform to patriarchal ideals. And the problem is that she likes to wear trousers and mail. She likes to wear masculine clothes, and they want her to be very aware of how much they disapprove.

And we also hear a great deal about marrying and having children out of duty. There's a certain loss she feels there because she believes that, at that point, all those missed opportunities will never present themselves again. All her life, she grew up with a dichotomy that dictated that the chance of having a family or children was through duty or none at all, because she is her father’s heir and—they kept telling her—nobody would want an ugly, masculine, temperamental girl as a wife. They could only want her for the money she brought. The point of the story is that, once again, failing the standards of femininity has forced her into a mentality where she thinks she can’t be loved because nobody would like who and what she is. But even then, even with that thorn in her mind, she still feels relieved she didn't have to perform these particular duties. The only thing she’s sad about is that she thinks she's missed any chance at having a family at all and will never know what that might be like. She doesn’t actively want babies or even to be married. She is still young, and at least to me, she seems to view these things in hypothetical rather than explicit goals or wants. She thinks that, at 20, there is no opportunity for her to experience these things because of how her society works. It’s the lack of choice that she mourns, down the line. But she rejects that particularly role that femininity imposes on her now. She didn’t want it, and she is happy it didn’t go through. She literally fought an old man to prove how much she didn’t want those impositions.

All this is interesting to me because Brienne also sort of thinks of herself as her father's son as well as her father's daughter. It almost slips her mouth once or twice. She is aware, I think, that many times the differences between a son and a daughter boil down not really to gender but to the sort of duty they perform. And she wants to do the sorts of things sons do, too. Men regularly learned to fight and wore the clothes she liked best and used hard-earned skills in a way she wanted to use them. There are layers to this (we’ll get to that in a bit) but she is, I think, very aware of her masculinity, and, if left to her own devices, she seems comfortable in it. The problem is she is NOT left to her own devices.

Most of Brienne's self doubt comes from outside forces. As a woman, they underestimate her. As a woman, they think she is stupid. As a gender non-conforming woman, every jape uttered goes directly to her womanhood. As a woman, if she looks the way she does and dresses the way she does and fights the way she does, when she expresses any vulnerable emotion, any shred of “femininity,” she is mocked for it. She likes dancing and beautiful things and pretty boys but a woman as masculine as she is is not the sort of person who gets to express those preferences without judgment from those around her.

The point is Brienne’s world wants her miserable either way: being unable to be a woman the way they demand of her, because she is too much “like a man” for it, or being unable to be a man, because she is too much a woman for that. The point is she can’t win regardless of what she does. Because that’s how sexism works.

But Brienne’s story is, I think, one about choices. The thing is that the world makes it harder for her, but she shouldn't have to be one thing or the other. She shouldn’t have to be defined by one or the other. If she wants to fight in the mud and smell roses and wear chain-mail and talk to charming men, she should be able to choose all of those things. I think it’s easy to focus too much in what aspects of femininity Brienne likes or dislikes instead of looking at what the story is proposing, which is to look at what Brienne,as a person, likes or dislikes. What she wants. Her parallel story to Jaime is about how the world will always try to put folks in boxes, especially those who, for some reason or another, do not easily fit in those boxes. The question is not “what feminine/masculine parts of Brienne is she happy performing” but rather “what does Brienne want, and why does she feel like she cannot get it and doesn't dare ask.”

This is also what drives her to servitude. There’s a phrase out there that says that if you don’t think you can be liked, you try to become useful, so at least there’s a reason to keep you around. It’s heartbreaking to see how Brienne’s vision of herself has been so skewed by the emotional abuse, parental neglect, and bullying she’s experienced since a young age. She doesn’t think anyone will grow close to her, so at least she can be close to people by serving them. She wants to put her skills to use, she wants to find a place where she fits, where she can be more herself, but she isn’t sure what that looks like or how to find it. She’s still searching, and learning many things on the way.

And Brienne is still very young. We can see her confidence growing and her worldview challenged and she is beginning to see the realities of herself and of the world around her through various trials by fire. Misogyny makes her feel incomplete, but we know the things she trusts about herself while simultaneously seeing the way she constantly doubts others. How she can't never express all of herself without constant judgment or mockery.

I feel like yes, the fact Brienne doesn't reject all traditional femininity is really important to her themes, but by extension, it's as important that shedoes reject some of those traditional expressions of femininity. What she is truly rejecting is imposition, not femininity. What she truly needs to embrace is freedom, not masculinity. She's making her own vows, breaking her own promises, going through her own mistakes. She is learning the hard way. Agency in a world of limited choices is one of Brienne's main themes too. There are moral issues that go deep within her story as well as examinations of the effects of war and the struggle to find authenticity and connection in a community that refuses to acknowledge yours, a community drenched in pretense and lost in performance.

And I think it’s easy to get too caught up in her wanting to be a girlfriend or a mother or wearing a dress that we bypass the whole conversation around why that matters at all. I feel like Brienne's success isn't going to come from her fully embracing all her feminine traits or fully accepting all her masculine traits but from being able, down the line, to be exactly who she is.

#brienne of tarth #beautiful explanation #asoiaf

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Thanks for the tag @ride-thedragon

Were you named after anyone?

Yes, my great grandfather, my dad and a character in a show that my mom really liked. (None of these names are my legal name lol)

When was the last time you cried?

Around two weeks ago (ya girl was going through it)

Do you have any kids?

What’s sports have you/ do you play?

Gymnastics

Do you use sarcasm?

I try not to

What’s the first thing people notice about you?

My eyebrows

What is your eye color?

Brown

Scary Movies or Happy Endings?

Both depending on the day

Any talents?

I swearrrrr I’m a decent artist I just CANNOT do digital art to save my life. Writing. Dancing. Embroidery. And a lot of other things.

Where were you born?

Eastsyde, JA🇯🇲

What are your hobbies?

I just picked up photography and I’ve been enjoying it. I LOVE reading. Studying astrology. Watching supernatural TV shows. And dancing, I do that everyday. I love nature walks.

Do you have any pets?

No but I imprinted on one of the stray cats in my neighborhood. He will be mine in few weeks hopefully.

How tall are you?

5’2

Favorite subject in school?

English

Dream Job?

Anything in the healthcare or marine field. I might go back into education too

Low commitment tags: @martellspear @elia-nymmeros @boonoonoonus @asoiastarks @drunkchickpea @redrosesandcharmingsouls

15 Questions For 15 Friends

@vhagar-balerion-meraxes thanks for tagging me!

Are you named after anyone? - My parents named me after Olga of Kiev.

When was the last time you cried? - Oh I don't remember. Maybe a few days ago, when I was moved by the plot of a computer game.

Do you have kids? - Nope.

What sport do you play / have played? - I practice archery.

Do you use sarcasm? - Too often, to be honest.

What's the first thing you notice about people? - Their style of clothing, their eyes and smile.

What's your eye color? - My eyes were brown most of my life, and then they began to turn green lol. Now they are half brown, half green.

Scary movies or happy endings? - Happy endings, I need some serotonin.

Any talents? - I play the drums, I seem to be good at drawing and writing things.

Where were you born? - Russia.

What are your hobbies? - Archery, drumming, reading, escaping from reality.

Do you have any pets? - No.

How tall are you? - 6ft (yes, 182cm, I'm taaall.)

Favorite subject in school? - Literature.

Dream job? - Something creative, although I consider my current job (online teacher) to be ideal.

No pressure tags: @snowblack-charcoalwhite @liv-cole @dr-aegon @fragileheartbeats @barbieaemond

@st-eve-barnes @zae5 @starlitelwing @playlistashton @thesunfyre4446

@mhsdatgo @wolfdressedinlace @aegon-the-elder @please-buckme @redrosesandcharmingsouls

#tag games

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